Scientologist hospitalized after jump into harbor

[SP Times 2 March 1997]

Scientologist hospitalized after jump into harbor

By THOMAS C. TOBIN

St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 1997

CLEARWATER - A barefoot woman ran between two
Church of Scientology buildings early Saturday before
jumping into Clearwater Harbor, where police took her
into protective custody for a psychiatric evaluation.

As the incident unfolded over more than three city blocks
downtown, a patrol officer tried twice to ask the woman if
she needed help, police said. They said she and a Church
of Scientology security guard behind her kept running and
eventually she was found by police in shallow Clearwater
Harbor.

Scientology attorney Elliot Abelson said Saturday that the
woman had a personal emergency at a Scientology
building, the Sandcastle hotel, and was running to get there
from the Fort Harrison Hotel.

The guard was trying to help her, Abelson said. "The
guard was absolutely not running after her."

The woman, a 36-year-old Scientologist visiting from
New Jersey, told Clearwater police she was not trying to
get away from the church or church officials during her
pre-dawn sprint through downtown.

Police said the woman appeared distraught and was
admitted to Morton Plant Hospital under the Baker Act,
which empowers officers to seek mental evaluations for
people who appear likely to harm themselves or others.

The woman's two children, estimated to be ages 2 and 7,
were found sleeping in her room on the seventh floor of
Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel, said police spokesman
Wayne Shelor, who refused to release the woman's name.

He said the children were fine and were in the custody of
the state Department of Children and Families.

The incident comes as Clearwater police and state law
enforcement officials investigate the case of another
36-year-old Scientologist, Lisa McPherson, who died in
1995 after a 17-day stay at the Fort Harrison.

McPherson also had behaved oddly in public, taking off
her clothes at the scene of a minor accident. She too was
taken to Morton Plant Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation
but fellow Scientologists intervened, saying psychiatry was
against her religion. They promised to take care of her and
took her to the Fort Harrison.

McPherson entered the hotel in good physical shape.
After an autopsy, the medical examiner said she had
suffered severe dehydration.

McPherson's family has alleged in a lawsuit that she was
isolated and held against her will as part of a church
procedure to cure what Scientology calls a "psychotic
break." Church officials say McPherson was isolated, but
did not undergo any procedure and was free to come and
go. They say she was well cared for and that they did all
they could after she suddenly became ill with a severe
staph infection.

On Saturday, Officer Terry Kelly saw the woman run out
the front door of the Fort Harrison and head north on Fort
Harrison Boulevard, Shelor said. She was dressed in a
shirt and jeans with no shoes or socks, and was being
followed by a security guard, he said.

"She was in a full-gait run," Shelor said. Kelly "described
her as wild-eyed," Shelor said.

Shelor said the McPherson case had no bearing on how
the department handled the Saturday incident.

"At 5:40 in the morning, this tends to catch the eye of a
police officer, regardless of where it happens," Shelor
said. "He was concerned for her well-being . . . It was
imperative that a police officer speak with the woman and
determine if she needed assistance."

Shelor said Kelly caught up to the woman at the city's
main library three blocks from the Fort Harrison and
asked if she needed help. He said the woman and the
security guard continued running.

After that, he said, the woman cut through a hedge at the
old chamber of commerce building at Osceola Avenue
and Drew Street and ran to the Sandcastle, a church
retreat overlooking Clearwater Harbor.

The officer again tried to talk to the woman as she paused
briefly near a man who appeared to be a Sandcastle
manager or representative, Shelor said. But she bolted
into a Sandcastle building and a short time later was seen
in the harbor, just beyond a 6-foot sea wall at the west
end of the property.

The water was only about a foot deep, and the woman
was unhurt except for a cut on her foot, Shelor said.

An officer was dispatched to the Fort Harrison after the
woman mentioned her two children, he said.

Police placed her into protective custody and took her to
headquarters to be interviewed, Shelor said. They decided
to admit her under the Baker Act in part because of a note
they found in her room at the Fort Harrison, he said.
Shelor would not disclose the note's contents.

Also, Shelor said, "she was speaking and acting
irrationally. Clearly, she was trying to do harm to
herself."

Abelson, the church attorney, said the woman and her
children checked into the Fort Harrison on Friday night.
He said she appeared in the lobby holding two pillows at
about 5:40 a.m.

A guard saw her and asked if he could help her, he said.

Church spokesman Brian Anderson said she asked a
security guard whether he had a car available. The guard
said he did not, Anderson said.

The woman told the guard there was an emergency at the
Sandcastle and that she needed his help, Anderson said.
Then she ran out the door, he said.

The guard radioed to alert the Sandcastle then headed out
to assist the woman, Anderson said.

Abelson said the guard was a block behind the woman.
At the Sandcastle, he said, police asked her whether she
was being chased. She responded that the guard was
helping her, then ran into the Sandcastle, Abelson said.

"This is not an escape," he said. "This is a person going
from one church building to another."

Anderson said the woman had told church guards and
police that she was troubled about the death of her
husband last year. He said the woman's family has arrived
in town to help her and her children.

He said he did not know what the woman's emergency
was. He also said the church would not intervene for the
woman at the hospital.